Trivia: Born Krekor Ohanian, American actor Mike Connors was born and raised in the heavily Armenian community of Fresno, California. He studied law at UCLA, but distinguished himself in sports (he'd gotten in on a basketball scholarship). While in the Air Force, Connors switched his career goals to acting on the advice of producer/director William Wellman, who'd remembered Connors' college athletic activities. Hollywood changed young Mr. Ohanian's last name to Connors, and since this was the era of "Rocks" and "Tabs" it was decided that the actor needed a suitably rugged first name. So Connors spent his first few acting years as Touch Connors, a nickname he'd gotten while playing college football. His first picture was the Joan Crawford vehicle Sudden Fear (1952) but handsome hunks were a glut on the market in the early '50s, so Connors found himself in "B" pictures, mostly at bargain-basement American International studios. Renaming himself "Mike," Connors was able to secure the lead role as an undercover agent on the 1959 detective series Tightrope. The series was a hit but was dropped from the network due to complaints about excessive violence, though it cleaned up in syndication for years afterward. After a few strong but non-starring roles in such films as Good Neighbor Sam (1963) and Where Love Has Gone (1964), Connors landed the title role in Mannix (1967), a weekly TV actioner about a trouble-prone private eye. For the next eight high-rated seasons, Connors' Joe Mannix was beaten up, shot at, cold-cocked and nearly run over in those ubiquitous underground parking lots each and every week. The series ran in over 70 foreign countries, allowing Connors a generous chunk of profits percentages in addition to his lofty weekly salary-- which became loftier each time that the actor announced plans to retire. Mike Connors has starred in the 1981 series Today's FBI and filmed a cop-show pilot titled Ohanian (playing a character with his own real name), but nothing has quite captured the public's fancy, or been as lucrative in reruns, as Connors' chef d'ouevre series Mannix.

Trivia: American actress Diana Hyland took private acting lessons as a high school student, debuting professionally at age 17 at the Rabbit Run Theatre of Madison, Ohio. Once in New York, she worked part time as the switchboard operator of her apartment building, hitting pay dirt actingwise with an important role on TV's Robert Montgomery Presents. More TV work followed, as did summer stock appearances with the likes of Claudette Colbert and a tour with the stage play Look Back in Anger; Diana capped the '50s with a Broadway appearance in Sweet Bird of Youth, costarring Paul Newman and Geraldine Page. Like most New York-based actresses of the era, Diana did a soap opera stint (Young Dr. Malone), but after her character was abruptly killed off she headed for the ostensibly greener pastures of Hollywood. Her first job there, supporting Robert Redford in an Alcoa Premiere drama, earned Diana an Emmy nomination, leading to prolific guest-star work on such series as Dr. Kildare, The Alfred Hitchcock Hour and Twilight Zone. Undeniably talented, Diana was best known in studio circles for her impatience and outspokenness, and in fact was reprimanded in print for this trait by columnist Hedda Hopper. Her film career was far less interesting than her TV work: The Chase (1966) is the only Diana Hyland performance seen on a regular basis on television these days, and it's hardly worthy of her or anyone else in the cast (which included Marlon Brando, Robert Redford and Jane Fonda). Except for a recurring role on Peyton Place in the mid '60s, Diana avoid regular primetime series work until 1976, when she signed to play Dick Van Patten's wife on Eight is Enough. That same year, she costarred in the TV movie Boy in the Plastic Bubble with John Travolta. Diana fell in love with Travolta, 17 years her junior, and the two moved in together. Thus 1977 should have been a professional and personal high water mark for Diana Hyland. But on March 27 of that year, Diana died of cancer, which devastated not only Travolta but the entire Eight is Enough cast. The five completed episodes starring Diana Hyland began telecasting on March 15, a scant twelve days before her death.

Trivia: Coleman attended a Virginia military school before studying law and serving in the army. While attending the University of Texas, Coleman became attracted to acting, and headed to New York, where he studied at the Neighborhood Playhouse. After stage experience and TV work, Coleman made his movie debut in 1965's The Slender Thread. Minus his trademarked mustache for the most part in the mid-1960s, Coleman specialized in secondary character roles. He began to branch into comedy during his supporting stint as obstetrician Leon Bessemer on the Marlo Thomas sitcom That Girl, but his most memorable role would come in 1980 as the nasty, chauvinistic boss in 9 to 5. He would go on to appear in other films, like On Golden Pond [1981], The Beverly Hillbillies [1993], You've Got Mail [1998], and Moonlight Mile, but the actor found more success in television, appearing on a few cult hits that were tragically cancelled, like Drexell's Class and Madman of the People, as well as The Guardian, Courting Alex, Heartland, and Boardwalk Empire.

Trivia: Howard Hesseman's early credits have sometimes been hard to trace, mainly because he often billed himself as "Don Sturdy." The mustachioed, prematurely balding Hesseman was a founding member of the San Francisco-based improv troupe The Committee. During his decade-long tenure with this aggregation, he was featured in such films as Petulia (1968) and A Session with the Committee (1970), and showed up on such TV series as The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour and The Dick Cavett Show. Through the auspices of his Committee cohort Peter Bonerz, Hesseman played a recurring role on TV's The Bob Newhart Show (1972-78), playing the unsuccessful producer of such TV disasters as "The Nazi Hour." His screen roles in the 1970s included a showy part as a harried TV-commercial director in the opening sequence of The Sunshine Boys. In 1978, Hesseman achieved celebrity in the role of counterculture deejay Dr. Johnny Fever (aka Johnny Caravella) on the popular sitcom WKRP in Cincinnati. Following WKRP's cancellation in 1982, he spent two seasons playing Ann Romano's third (and presumably final) husband Sam Royer on the weekly One Day at a Time. From 1986 to 1990, he starred as urbane high school teacher Charlie Moore in TV's Head of the Class. During all this activity, Howard Hesseman continued showing up in feature films, playing such roles as smarmy promoter Terry Ladd in This is Spinal Tap (1984) and child star Patty Duke's manipulative manager/guardian John Ross in the TV biopic Call Me Anna (1989). Over the following several years, Hessman would remain active on screen, appearnig on shows like That 70's Show and Crossing Jordan, and in movies like The Rocker.